Archive | 2010 | May

Non-profit organization teams up with Tel Aviv Municipality in initiative to offer beach-goers ashtrays to throw cigarette butts in rather than throwing them in sand – ‘We aren’t against smoking, but are for maintaining a butt-free environment’

Except tar and jellyfish, cigarette butts seem to be the biggest nuisance on the beach. They don’t stick to you and won’t sting you, but they surround bathers significantly tainting their beach-going experience.

Try remembering the last time you put your foot into the soft sand and didn’t find a burnt, squished cigarette but with lipstick stains on it.

Tel Aviv’s beaches will be the target of an initiative this beach season to remedy the situation. Starting Thursday, blue cones will be offered on public stands. The non-profit organization, “A Country without Cigarette Litter,” recruited the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa to place blue, cone-shaped ashtrays at the entrance to the city’s beaches.

Go ahead and smoke, just don’t litter (Photo: Inbal Tanenbaum)

Three beaches were chosen for a pilot program. If successful, the move will be implemented on the rest of the city’s beaches. In the meantime, you will be able to find the blue cones on Metzitzim Beach, Hilton Beach, and Tzuk Beach.

Each one of these beaches will be outfitted with stands holding 50 blue cones each. Bathers are invited to take a cone with them to use while they are sitting on the beach, and empty it in the garbage and return it when they leave.

“We took the idea for placing the stands from similar activity in Spain. We believe that the idea will be well-liked in Israel as well, and, even more importantly, will reduce the cigarette-butt litter on the beaches,” explained Yair Wolovitch, one of the organization’s founders.

According to him, cigarette butts are the number one component of litter on the world’s streets and beaches. It is estimated that in Israel alone some six million cigarette butts are littered every year. Not only are they unappealing to the eye, but they are bad for people’s health and the environment. Cigarette butts are made of cellulose, which takes about 15 years to decompose.

“The purpose of our activities is to raise awareness among the Israeli public, reduce cigarette butt litter, and increase personal responsibility. Cigarette butts cause a lot of damage. For instance, they could be swallowed by children or animals, cause fires, pollute water sources, and incur direct (from cleaning services) and indirect (from tourism) economic losses,” explained Wolovitch.

The organization makes it clear that they are not an anti-smoking organization, but are in favor of maintaining a healthy and clean environment.

“In interviews we conducted, smokers claimed they would stop throwing cigarette butts on the ground if they found ashtrays nearby. Therefore, there is great importance to the availability of ashtrays accessible to the smoking public,” he explained.

He and his friends are convinced that raising awareness about the damage of littering cigarette butts will directly impact the number of cigarette butts they encounter on the ground.

It should be noted that the court ordered a driver to pay a fine of NIS 2,000 (about $540) for throwing a cigarette butt out of his car window while driving. The driver chose to go to court instead of paying the original NIS 250 (about $68) ticket issued him by a sanitation inspector.

“Tel Aviv Municipality is undertaking a move that is the first of its kind and will be an example and inspiration for the rest of the municipalities in Israel,” said Avi Licht, director of the municipal beach department.

Source: Ynetnews.com

The report characterized the series, which translates to “What a wonderful country”, as “a hybrid of sorts between America’s Saturday Night Live and the Daily Show” with John Stewart.
By Chen Haddad

It appears that Israel is not the only country in the world that appreciates the homemade television series “Eretz Nehederet.”

The T.V. channel CNN recently ran a report about the Israeli comedy program following the end of the series’ seventh season.

The report characterized the series, which translates to “What a wonderful country”, as “a hybrid of sorts between America’s Saturday Night Live and the Daily Show” with John Stewart.

The report combined several sketches from the series, including the one portraying Tzipi Livni spending time on Facebook and the sketch of Barack Obama finding the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accidentally burning the U.S. flag.

It also includes a sketch of a BBC reporter exaggerating the news coming out of a war torn Gaza Strip.

Source: Haaretz.com

L’Ontario souhaite faire plus d’affaires au Proche-Orient. Le premier ministre ontarien Dalton McGuinty est actuellement à la tête d’une mission économique en Israël et en Cisjordanie.

Passage obligé pour un politicien qui visite Israël, M. McGuinty s’est tout d’abord recueilli au musée de l’Holocauste. Yad Vashem est le coeur de la mémoire du génocide. Il s’agit du plus important centre de documentation de la Shoah. Le musée répertorie l’identité de chacun des millions de juifs tués lors de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale.

Par la suite, Dalton McGuinty s’est rendu dans les quartiers du patriarche de la politique israélienne. À 87 ans, le président israélien Shimon Peres a parlé d’avenir pendant une heure avec le politicien canadien.

Le président a proposé qu’Israël et l’Ontario rassemblent leurs meilleurs chercheurs pour créer un institut de recherche dont le but serait de repousser les limites de l’informatique en lien avec le cerveau humain.

Cette idée a réjoui M. McGuinty. « Je le considère comme un vrai compliment pour les Ontariens et les Ontariennes, les innovateurs et les innovatrices et nos personnes scientifiques », a-t-il déclaré.

Israël est l’un des pays qui dépensent le plus en recherche et en développement. Le petit État de 7 millions d’habitants concentre ses efforts sur l’économie du savoir et avec succès. « Même dans la crise l’année passée, Israël a très bien fait avec l’économie », souligne la ministre du Développement économique et du Commerce de l’Ontario, Sandra Pupatello.

L’Ontario souhaite donc s’inspirer de cet exemple. « Maintenant, ça continue à évoluer et nous devenons un centre d’innovation », a indiqué M. McGuinty.

Le premier ministre de l’Ontario rencontrera le premier ministre israélien Benyamin Nétanyahou. Dalton McGuinty sait qu’il doit aussi tendre la main à la communauté arabe et tentera d’équilibrer son voyage en se rendant en Cisjordanie et à Beyrouth plus tard cette semaine.

VIDEO

Source: Radio Canada

________________________________________________________________________